In 2010, Jane Kleeb founded Bold Nebraska, a political advocacy groupworking in the state to advance progressive causes and unite residents against projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.

In June 2016, with the help of Bernie Sanders supporters, Kleeb was elected chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, defeating Chuck Hassebrook (a Hillary Clinton backer) by 42 votes out of 410 cast. Following her election, she threw down the gauntlet and declared: “The opposition party is now here.” On the national stage, she serves on the board of Our Revolution, the organization that grew out of the Sanders campaign.

Kleeb, 43, lives on a farm outside Hastings, Nebraska, with her husband Scott, three daughters and their three-legged dog. She describes herself as a “mom with a minivan.”

In the following interview Joel Bleifuss, In These Times editor & publisher, asks Kleeb what the climate change movement could be doing better, how the Democratic Party can best reach rural voters and whether she is an agent of the Lutheran Church.

Joel Bleifuss: The climate change movement has in recent years become a force in national politics. As someone who is a leader of that movement, and looking back at yourself critically, what do you think that movement could have done better?

Jane Kleeb: After seven years where rural farmers and ranchers were at the forefront of one of the most significant battles of the climate movement, when I’m in a room with some of the most respected leaders of the climate movement there is still neither a connection or acknowledgement that rural people matter.

A lot of these fights are in rural communities, whether it’s rural Louisiana, rural Oklahoma or rural Nebraska. And the vast majority of their membership and donors are on the coasts, so that’s where their mindset is. I’ve been challenging this group to hire people, to not hire a young kid out of college and put them in Oklahoma, but spend time on the ground in Oklahoma so you can identify the true grassroots leaders who may not come from an Ivy League background, but know the land and water better than anybody else.

It’s important that we talk about climate change in different ways, right? In rural and small towns we may not use the word “climate change” in the first five sentences, but everything we’re doing is talking about protecting the land and water and stopping these risky projects, which ultimately, obviously, impact climate change. So I think that there’s got to be an embracing of rural communities, an embracing of the agriculture sector, not as a villain, which still, to this day, some of the big green groups, you know, villainize farmers and ranchers. And instead, look at the things that they are doing to help on climate change, like decreasing water use, many of them are putting up solar and wind to become energy independent. They’re a big part of that kind of revolution in our country. That’s one of the biggest lessons.